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Nathan D. Lemke, Andrew D. Ludlow, Zeb Barber, Tara M. Fortier, Scott A. Diddams, Yanyi Jiang, Steven R. Jefferts, Thomas P. Heavner, Thomas E. Parker, Christopher W. Oates
Abstract
We experimentally investigate an optical clock based on 171Yb (I = 1/2) atoms confined in an optical lattice. We have evaluated all known frequency shifts to the clock transition, including the density-dependent collision shift, with an uncertainty of 0.19 Hz, or 3.6× 10−16 fractionally, limited principally by uncertainty in the blackbody radiation Stark shift. We have measured the absolute clock transition frequency relative to the NIST-F1 Cs fountain clock and find the frequency to be 518 295 836 590 865.7(0.9) Hz.
Lemke, N.
, Ludlow, A.
, Barber, Z.
, Fortier, T.
, Diddams, S.
, Jiang, Y.
, Jefferts, S.
, Heavner, T.
, Parker, T.
and Oates, C.
(2009),
A Spin-1/2 Optical Lattice Clock, Physical Review Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=901526
(Accessed October 6, 2025)